


The Trial of Jack-be-Nimble Jr.

by MistyBeethoven



Series: "Yes, I Really Am This Pathetic!" or "How to Say I Love You With a Story" [48]
Category: Babes in Toyland (1986)
Genre: Accusations, Adultery, Adulthood, Attraction, BBW, Bad Taste, Banishment, Bees, Butts, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Consent Issues, Courtroom Drama, Crushes, Cunnilingus, Dark Comedy, Desire, Dirty Thoughts, Doggy Style, Dreams, Dubious Consent Fantasy, Erections, Exile, F/M, Fables - Freeform, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Parody, Fantasy, Flowers, For Adults Only, Fractured Fairy Tale, Friendship/Love, Games, Go Karts, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Guilt, Impulses, Large Breasts, Loss of Innocence, Loss of Virginity, Love, Love Stories, Missionary Position, Nipple Play, Nursery Rhyme References, Oral Sex, Overweight, Penis In Vagina Sex, Rimming, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Sex, Sex Education, Sexual Fantasy, Shame, Taken Advantage of, Teddy Bears, Tickling, Trials, True Love, Virginity, childlike, sexual awakening, warped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:07:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24480328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyBeethoven/pseuds/MistyBeethoven
Summary: After an accident at the department store where I work with Jack Fenton, I wake up in Toyland as a girl named Erin, Erin "Bare End" due to the too short dresses I adorn and the fact that I wear no underwear underneath them. Physically becoming a grown woman, yet still not mentally initiated in the ways of adults, I believe that my relationship with my unhappily married friend Jack-be-Nimble Jr. can remain as innocent as the one we shared when I was a child. However, when Widow Hubbard's children catch Jack taking advantage of me one day in an open field, my friend is put on trial for having sex with an innocent. Not fully comprehending what is going on, because in Toyland only those whom have been married are privy to the facts about sex, I struggle to understand what Jack did to me, why it was wrong, my still existing love for him and what it means to truly be an adult and leave certain elements of your childhood behind.*A dirty and in bad taste fable about growing up.
Relationships: Barnaby Barnacle/Mary Contrary, Barney/Mary Piper, Jack Fenton (Babes in Toyland)/Mary Piper, Jack Fenton (Babes in Toyland)/Me, Jack-be-Nimble Jr./Mary Contrary, Jack-be-Nimble Jr./Me, Justice Grimm & Jack-be-Nimble Jr., Justice Grimm & Me, Mary Contrary & Me, Mary Contrary/Georgie Porgie, Mary Piper/George, The Toymaster & Jack-be-Nimble Jr., The Toymaster & Me
Series: "Yes, I Really Am This Pathetic!" or "How to Say I Love You With a Story" [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589944
Kudos: 9





	1. An Oh So Very Innocent Friendship

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with the thread of the idea for this one after watching "Babes in Toyland" shortly after Christmas. It was NOT initially in this poor of taste, comedic yet darkly serious or anything like that. It was just Jack being upset that Mary turned so contrary after marrying her.
> 
> It somehow got warped into this. :/
> 
> However, I'm kind of happy with the way this will turn out methinks. If BIT is about a young girl finding her childhood again, then this is about the importance of becoming an adult, the pain of leaving childhood behind and the need to merge both existences in the end to become a whole human being. It will be dirty. It will be in very poor and questionable taste sometimes. But I hope it will also be moving as well by the time that it is finished.
> 
> If you stick around that long to see it. :/
> 
> I'm sorry about this one too, Keanu. For better or worse, I tend to go with what the story demands of me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I renew my friendship with Jack-be-Nimble Jr. after his marriage with Mary Contrary is causing him and his candlestick pain.

I had harbored the most horrible crush on Jack Fenton since I could remember. The fat little girl who lived next door to him, I had spent many a day gazing out of my bedroom window, hoping and praying fervently to God that I would catch a glimpse of him at any possible moment. Given the fact that our bedroom windows were across from one another I also had to make sure that I didn't catch _too_ much of a glimpse and invade the poor man's privacy.

He was older than myself and occassionally my mother would ask him to look after my sister and I when she needed to go out for this reason or that. I suspected that he had a crush on my mom because he always readily agreed even though babysitting was really more of a girl thing. But he was always kind with me and my shyness, taking the time to hold me on his knee and read to me stories or poems out of my fairy tale or nursery rhyme books. I grew to love him even more as the years passed and I exchanged my childhood for puberty and finally young adulthood itself.

Of course, Jack was far ahead of me in that area and I was forced to sit by and watch as he entered the realm of dating without me.

Most of his girlfriends came and went in the beginning so I could handle it well enough; when Jack moved into his own apartment, I was spared the sight of them altogether. I hoped for the day, though, when he might just figure out my feelings for him and he would realize in return that he was equally in love with his overweight and terribly shy former baby sittee from next door.

It was when he began to date a girl named Mary Piper and he seemed to finally be getting serious for her that my heart really broke. He was obviously crazy for her and even had brought her home to meet his mother which was when I first saw the two of them together.

After that, I'd come across them often throughout Cincinnati, a sight which always wounded me to my sensitive core. Jack always treated me so sweetly but I knew he would forever see me as the child he used to watch.

Like a fool whom still believed in those tales and that life still held some rhyme and reason, however, I held on to the smallest flicker of hope on a dying candle in a broken candlestick that there might _still_ be a chance for Jack Fenton and myself.

Just _maybe_ if he could ever come to see me as a woman and not just a little girl.

* * *

"Jack, you went and put the wrong sale stickers on the Cabbage Patch Kids!" Mary Piper exclaimed down a children's aisle of the department store where we worked.

When Jack's best friend George had left, my former babysitter had pulled strings like Gepeto to get me the job. He had heard that I had just finished High School and was looking for work. I was forever grateful to him and tried not to spend my workday following him around like the lovesick puppy that I was. It had also given me the chance to see Jack's relationship with Mary closer too. It wasn't as perfect as it had seemed from a distance. The woman constantly contradicted or argued with her boyfriend and I could see the strain it was putting on him.

Today was no exception.

"Those _were_ the ones you gave me, Mary!"

"No they weren't!" she snapped. "Why would I give you the wrong sale stickers?"

"I dunno," Jack retaliated in annoyance. "Maybe because you were too busy checking out Brad in refunds?"

Mary looked affronted and pushed a new roll of stickers at Jack before she stormed off in a huff. I watched quietly from the corner, writing down the inventory on a tall stack of those same Cabbage Patch Kids as Jack swore. Remembering that I was there, the young man looked up in embarrassment. "Sorry Erin," he apologized. "I shouldn't use that kind of language in front of you."

"Why?" I asked with a fair bit of kindness. "I'm not a child. Besides I heard far worse from my dad, before he left, when I was a kid."

Jack Fenton studied my plump body and the parts that had swollen out since the last time he had babysat me. His face turned scarlet and he blushed as his eyes lingered on my butt and my breasts.

"Yeah...I can see that," he said with a gulp and ran his fingers through his shaggy hair.

"She gives you a hard time," I said in comfort, trying to change the subject and escape from the awkwardness which had suddenly settled around us.

"Yeah," he snorted. "It's hard in every single way but the way I need to be."

He looked up at me in embarrassment again but I didn't know what the heck he meant.

"She's been seeing practically every guy in the store behind my back," he explained. "George left because he felt guilty for sporting with her in sporting goods, you know? She's even been with Barney! And she used to hate him!"

I flinched in disgust. Barney was our much older boss and he made it difficult for every single employee that worked under him. Except for Mary whom he obviously was in love with. Or as much love as Barney could actually feel.

"Can't you end it with her?" I asked.

"I should!" he exclaimed. "I just hate to hurt her mother, brother and little sister. I almost killed her sister by accident once during a blizzard! If I broke up with her they might start asking why and find out about Mary's true nature. Darn it! Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a good guy!" he exclaimed and threw the red roll of stickers onto the ground and away from him in anger.

The only problem was that when it hit the floor, being round, it rolled straight into the stack of dolls I was marking.

"ERIN!" I heard Jack crying out as the pile of Cabbage Patch Kids fell down right on top of me, my last conscious thought being how their dresses were far too short.

* * *

I awoke surrounded by several standing bears, geese, ducks, cats, dogs, children and oddly dressed people all staring down at me. I immediately freaked out because it was so different from the real world and the department store where I had just been moments before. Then I smiled and calmed down as my eyes came to rest on the handsome face of Jack-be-Nimble Jr. staring down at me too, as he knelt by my side holding me, and I swiftly reorganized my muddled way of thinking. Of course, this was reality! Stuffed oversized Teddy bears, too precious for words children and clean cut men in frilly, old fashioned outfits and wearing too much rouge was perfectly normal! It was that other place with its animals on all fours, nose picking youths in t-shirts and men with facial hair that had been the dream!

"Erin, are you all right?" Jack asked me as I grabbed hold of his shoulders for strength.

"What...what happened?" I asked, still feeling very confused about how I had ended up on the ground.

"Somebody hit you with their Go Kart," Jack explained as he helped me to my feet. "But nobody saw who it was."

I thought that this was a very odd occurencd since Go Karts were not exactly all that concealing when the bursts of laughter, waves of snickers and chorus of titters interupted my thoughts. Then one of the children began to whisper under his breath and my cheeks burned rose red without the use of powder because I instantly knew the reason for their amusement.

_"Erin, Erin has a bare end,_   
_Dress too short and butt too big,_   
_Not enough leaf on any old fig,_   
_See her business when she bends over,_   
_To pick up a flower or any old clover."_

The crowd had been given a glimpse of my bare bottom again as I had stood, I thought, and I sighed.  
It was common for me to unintentionally moon or flash onlookers. Though I truly never wanted to. It was customary for all the children born in Toyland to be bestowed with a rhyme to suit their name or profession; this had been mine ever since my mother had once bought for me too short of a dress and I had foolishly decided to go out collecting flowers whilst not wearing any underwear. I had been suffering from a yeast infection, at the time, and Doctor Foster had advised that I let the air at it. I had let _too_ much air at it in front of _too_ many onlookers it appeared. The rhyme had stuck to my mother's, sister's and my own horror.

When we had visited Judge Grimm to enforce it be retracted, he refused to reverse it.

"Erin is such a _difficult_ name to rhyme with," he declared. "Be grateful she has been given a rhyme at all so we do not need to exile her to the Forest of the Night."

Anybody whom broke the rules of Toyland were exiled to those dark and scary woods, including those poor rhymeless souls. 

I had wanted to argue that " _bare end_ " hardly rhymed with " _Erin_ " but my mother had made me keep my mouth shut, not wanting me to be thrown out into the woods as all those whom had not found their rhyme were. So I had to endure and live with the taunts and jeers of the other Toyland citizens as I was forced to wear dresses which were too short and no underwear underneath. When I had started to grow hair up front, it had only doubled my embarrassment.

Still no matter how many times I asked the Toymaker, Justice Grimm or Widow Hubbard about the strange wiry hair beseiging my bottom front they would not explain. The Adults lived in there own seperate world and they would not explain certain things to you unless you were married.

I, you see, was eighteen years old but still unmarried.  
And it seemed unlikely that I ever would be.

My friend and only love Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was, though, a fact which saddened me terribly.

Two years ago he had married a woman named Mary Contrary and the two were said to be living in marital bliss. Since his marriage, Jack had rarely been around me and when he was he seemed painfully aware of my big bottom sticking out and my puffy, furry mound occassionally peeking at the front. I tried to get him to explain it all to me but he would get horribly flustered and embarrassed whenever I did and would retreat to the Cookie Factory where he worked, a factory I wasn't allowed to enter until I put on some underpants so I would not get my weird hair in any of the cookies. Some jokes were made about _my_ cookies and hair but I could scarcely fathom any of them, and nobody would explain, so I just ignored it all and went off to collect more flowers.

Now Jack was next to me again, though, even if he was blushing fiercely. "Oh Jack," I said and hugged him. "Thank you for helping me!"

The crowd all gasped in horror as I held my estranged friend close to me.

"Scandalous!"

"She should be ashamed!"

"He's married!"

"Happily so!"

"What would his Mary say?"

But they didn't understand! I'd loved Jack before she ever had! Besides what trouble could a little grateful embrace cause?

Even if something Jack had in his pocket was uncomfortably poking me.

* * *

Jack didn't take me to the Cookie Factory but he did take me to the sweet little house that he shared with Mary to help me to clean off. I went into the washroom and scrubbed the dust off my body that had gotten on me when I had fallen on to the dirty Toyland street; I wiped it off of my dress too. Afterwards, I came out to the sitting room and sat down on the sofa next to my friend, glad to be with him once again.

"Where's Mary?" I asked even though I was grateful that she was gone so we could be alone. Guiltily I added some praise, "She is so pretty and her dresses are always so nice and long!"

I was currently battling with my own, trying futilely to pull it down past my knees.

" _Wha_ -what?" Jack-be-Nimble Jr. asked in a daze. He was staring between my legs at that strange patch of hair on my round hilly piece of flesh with the crack and I could see a bead of sweat on his brow.

"Jack, are you all right?" I asked, forgetting about my too short of a dress out of my more pressing concern for him.

The man raised his head to meet my eyes and I saw a desperation in his dreamy brown eyes. "No! No, I am not all right!" he exclaimed. "Erin, married life with Mary is horrid!"

"Oh Jack!" I exclaimed. "Surely you must say that in jest!"

I had turned on the sofa and had grasped both his hands in my own but the Cookie Factory owner shook his head in feverent denial of my words. "No, I promise it is truly awful!" he bemoaned. "Mary started out so lovely but then she became so...so... _contrary_!"

He freed one hand momentarily from my grip in order to run it through his brown hair which flopped effortlessly back into its former place. Then he grasped my chubby hand back in his own and looked at me in sorrow. "Every single thing I say she contradicts! And if I want to do something she does the opposite! It's gotten so if I want her to do anything I just say that I don't want to! Then immediately she'll do it. But you can't run a marriage that way! I wish she'd just focus on her gardening again!"

I squeezed Jack's hand. "The worst is that she's been seeing other men behind my back..." he stated sadly. "She let Georgie Porgie stick his finger in her pie outside of the Factory bakery...They are scribbling rhymes about her on the bathroom walls at work! The man she's off with right now is Barnaby Barnacle himself!"

"Barnaby Barnacle!" I said in revulsion. "But she didn't want to marry him two years ago!"

"That's how contrary she is," Jack spat. "She'll give her pie to everyone. But not me and my...my..."

My eyes enlargened. "Your what?" I asked in curiosity.

"My _candlestick_ ," Jack blurted out after some tactical deliberation that went over my head. I was still trying to figure out how Mary seemed to always have a pie with her when I never saw her with one.

"I...I think it's broken," my friend wailed. "The only time it felt better was when you hugged me out there in the middle of the street."

"Oh that was your candlestick!" I said, smiling now knowing completely what had been poking me.

"Yeah...yeah that's what it was," he stuttered.

"Can I see it? Maybe I can fix it."

"NO!" he shouted.

I backed away, hurt.

"No, you can't see it," Jack explained, bringing his hand to my head and stroking my long auburn ringlets. "It's adult stuff, Erin, and you're still too young."

"I am not!" I protested. "It's just this little girl dress they insist that I wear. I'm eighteen now!"

Jack looked at me strangely, his eyes staying on my swelling chest which was too large for my tight and small getup. He turned and looked away as if burnt and I thought I saw his candlestick poking up in his pants again. As Jack was holding his head in his hands and repeatedly murmuring, "I'm a good boy, I'm a good boy," I slid closer towards him and held him again. "You need a friend," I proclaimed. " _While your wife is out sharing her pie, with every single other guy, Why not with me your time spend_?"

It was an atrocious rhyme but one that came from my heart and soul.

Jack-be-Nimble Jr. turned and met my hope filled eyes. As his own dropped to my overlarge chest again and then back up, I felt a little tremor of fear in my soul because something in my friend's eyes looked different and so very, very _adultlike_ suddenly.

"Okay..." he whispered. "As Father Goose was always saying, before the farmer in the dell cooked him up for Thanksgiving following Mother Goose's suggestion, that is: what's good for the gander is also good for the goose."

His adult gaze fell to my bosom and my too short dress again hungrily and I trembled feeling very odd myself. Then he shook his head quickly and was the old Jack I knew once more, although somewhat ashamed looking, "I mean, we are friends, Erin. Right? You are my sweet childhood friend. It will be like old times; before things became so complicated." 

I beamed at the man and hugged him even tighter, my breasts pressing into him even more. Jack's candlestick seemed to grow even bigger but I just ignored it; it was adult business after all and had nothing to do with me since I was not married and never would be.

My heart belonged to Jack-be-Nimble Jr. alone and he was already married, after all.

And marriage in Toyland was an unbreakable, forever and always, happily ever after kind of thing.

Even if Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was the most miserable person I had ever seen.


	2. Just Some Harmless Fun and Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and I become the talk of Toyland as we play together. After Jack suggests we play on the borders of town to escape idle gossip, he introduces me to some new fun games and I help heal his candlestick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter probably shouldn't have been this long.
> 
> But it is. :/

The next few days were bliss for me.

I'd go to the be-Nimble household and knock on the front door to call on my friend. Mary never seemed to be home and Jack would soon come and we'd go out and play together.

Throughout the town we'd hold hands and walk down the streets when we weren't playing games that is. The games were the old ones we were both well acquainted with. We'd play catch or jacks and sometimes dodgeball or the like. Jack _really_ seemed to like it when he could just watch me skipping with my rope, though. Or when I would play hopscotch. I felt it was a little annoying and embarrassing when my dress kept hitching up, showing my furry front or my cheeky backside, or when my breasts would jiggle up and down like two overly large and bouncy balls but Jack didn't seem to mind. He'd spend the time just sitting in the grass and playing with his broken candlestick, trying to readjust it, I guess, until somebody came along and he'd move his legs so nobody would know what he was doing.

Jack's broken candlestick was as constant a source of shame to him as my short dress and naked lower half was to me, it seemed.

Meanwhile the other Toyland residents would look at us and Jack would have to suffer the repetition of the rhyme of his name. That was fine enough but when they got to mine that was when the real trouble started. I'd get so humiliated about my bare end being talked about, I'd try to pull my dress down which made Jack seem to become suddenly aware of business all the more. He looked as embarrassed as I was but also hot and uncomfortable sometimes. When I wasn't trying to hitch my too short dress down I'd hold on to his arm protectively, pressing my breasts and body close to him which made him even more flustered! I'd see him trying to hide his poor broken candlestick from the passerbys and I'd feel so bad for him but proud too. Jack didn't trust the other Toyland citizens with the problem he was having with his candlestick but he trusted me.

Still we were getting stares from everybody and soon Jack wouldn't let me hold on to his arm or hand at all. I started to cry a little, believing I had upset him somehow. However, Jack soon set me straight about it all.

"I _want_ to hold your hand," he professed. "Honest."

"But we used to hold hands and it was okay," I wept as we stood behind the cookie factory. We had darted behind it when the others had started to whisper behind our backs.

"The problem is that I'm only really supposed to do that with Mary; you know, now that I'm _married_! The others are starting to talk!"

I'd heard some of it; mostly it was about how it wasn't right what we were doing but since I still didn't _know_ anything it should be alright. As if that made _any_ sense.

I tried to be a big girl and hold back my tears which seemed to touch Jack. He stepped closer towards me as I leaned against the cookie factory's wall. The brick was rough against my bare bottom but this was forgotten about as Jack came towards me and touched my chubby cheek. "You really are getting to be an adult now, aren't you, Erin?" he stated, half sadly and half wistfully. "Soon some lucky guy...well, he's going to marry you and take you through that one special step."

Looking about as jealous as I felt when I thought of him being with Mary, Jack-be-Nimble Jr. bent his head down lower and kissed me. Oh, it wasn't the kisses we shared when we had been younger or the quick ones now when we greeted one another or said goodbye at the end of the day! This was longer and I thought I felt the edge of his tongue trying to come into my mouth! It was pressing into me just like his candlestick was.

When he parted from me, I exclaimed happily, "That's how you kiss Mary, isn't it? You kissed me like Mary!"

"Shhhh!" he hissed and looked around, seemingly relieved when he realized that we were alone. "Yes. I might not get to teach you what...what being an adult is like, but I wanted to kiss you, at least, Erin Erin Bare End!"

He was looking at me as if he wished as much as I did that it would be him that went even farther and showed me what that most secret part about being a grown up was all about.

"Oh no!" I cried and held him tightly to me. "I'm never going to be an adult if I can't be with you, Jack!" I vowed.

Jack shuddered and I thought I felt him intentionally pressing his candlestick, which had popped up a bit at my words, against me. I liked it inspite of myself even though it was like an extremely large finger was poking me. Then he seemed to catch himself and he held me at arm's length. I looked up into his chocolate colored eyes with my green gray ones and gave a sniffle or two.

"Okay," he suddenly relented. "You can hold my hand. But only when we're not in Toyland! We're going to have to start playing together on the outskirts of town so that nobody sees us."

He was doing that double kind of speak again. The type I didn't understand. Part of him seemed, for all the world, like my usual sweet innocent Jack-be-Nimble Jr. while the other half seemed as dastardly as old Barnaby Barnacle himself when he was up to something. It made me uncomfortable just like when his candlestick was prodding me. But it excited me just like that did too. I buried my fear down farther than my dress could go and just paid attention to the prospect of being with my dear friend, Jack-be-Nimble Jr., again.

* * *

We started playing on the borders of Toyland, far away from everyone and their cold eyes (eyes that didn't understand how good it was that I was getting to be with Jack again just like when we had been younger) and their flapping lips and insinuations I couldn't completely understand.

One day we we went down to the pond to catch frogs just like Jack said he used to with Georgy and the other boys when he had been a boy. "You don't get to do stuff like this much when you're a grown up," he told me. "Then it's all work and serious stuff," he said with a frown. I knew he was thinking of the cookie factory and how he had been neglecting his duties there to come and play with me. "Don't grow up, Erin," he suddenly warned. "It's not fun!"

"Isn't there _anything_ fun about it!" I asked in fear, wanting to stay an 18 year old child for the rest of my life if Jack's misery was evidence of an undesirable adulthood.

"A...a few things," he said, his eyes falling on my chest as I bent over to look at a fat old frog. It was sitting on a stone between us both in the pond we were standing in; Jack and I had both been deciding whom would leap first to catch it. The collar of my dress was dipping and the top of my breasts and the large crack in between, similar to my one at the back, was being shown to my friend. He was looking at them like they were two scoops of ice cream he wanted to roll his tongue all over. Infact, he even licked his lips strengthening that opinion. I felt weird again down below, like a strong heat and pressure.

"But Mary doesn't want to do those with me like she used to," he continued. "And when she does, I can't because I'm thinking of you and I don't want to play with her like _that_ anymore."

I felt a glow in my heart to match the one between my legs when Jack said that. Then the frog had the nerve to jump and Jack and I both jumped after it. We fell in the water and started to laugh together as old Mr. Frog swam away. "Oh Erin, I never have this type of fun with Mary!" he exclaimed and then helped me to my feet.

"I'm so glad Jack!" I declared happily. "It's good to see you happy again! I was afraid marriage to Mary had turned your smile upside down forever!"

I was revelling in that smile as we stood in the water, our hands linked and dangling as we stood at arm's length, smiling and laughing. Then Jack's eyes dropped and my overgrown chest straining against the fabric of my tight little dress caught his attention again and he looked hungry and pained. I lowered my own gaze to find out that falling in the water had made my dress see through! I could see the funny pink buttons on each fleshy mound easily visible!

"Oh Jack!" I cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"Wh-why?" he muttered, still staring at my chest, looking as pleasantly agonized as before.

The look on his face while he was gawking at my breasts was making that odd feeling of heat return to me and I felt simultaneously ashamed and thrilled. I felt my buttons tingling and popping out a tiny bit. Down below I felt as if the wet on my legs was being joined with liquid coming out from me too!

Suddenly something caught my attention as strongly as my chest seemed to have mesmerized Jack-be-Nimble Jr. His infamous candlestick, the broken one he kept hidden in his pants, looked as if it was standing straight up! Oh it looked so big and clunky. I suddenly felt so bad for my friend. "Your broken candlestick!" I exclaimed, pointing at it. "It looks _huge_! That must be so hard carrying it around with you everywhere, Jack!"

" _Hard_ ," Jack repeated. "Yeah, it sure is _hard_!" he stated and continued to stare at my bosom and the buttons he could see practically unobscured now pressing against my dress with each breath I took.

* * *

The next day, Jack and I went to Little Johnny's Orchard. Jack always could climb the trees so well and get the apples hanging on the top branches but I never could. My size prevented me. At one point, though, Jack got behind me and tried to help push me up the tree. There really wasn't anywhere for him to put his hands other than my big bottom so I felt one of his strong palms on each of my cheeks as he pushed and pushed my plump frame upwards.

"I'm not going to make it, Jack!" I cried. "I'm too big! I can't do it!"

"Let me...let me try a little longer!" he encouraged as I felt him pushing behind me, enthusiastically grabbing my back end. He really was so sweet and thoughtful! He even did it while his candlestick was causing him trouble again, my poor Jack. I could feel it pushing against the cloth of his pants and hitting my thigh, cheek or that funny area in between. Oh when it hit there it made me feel so hot and strange! I felt myself getting wet again. I didn't think it was pee, but I was embarrassed incase Jack did, so I moved away from him so he wouldn't notice.

As I fell to the side between the tree, I sat with my back against it and looked up to see Jack looking really frustrated. He ran a hand through his floppy hair and looked on the verge of saying a bad word.

"I'm sorry Jack," I apologized and hugged my knees.  
My chest was pressed against them and my friend stared at them hungrily and licked his lips.

"Do you want to play a new game, Erin?" he suggested.

I was a little frightened but I asked, "What is it?"

"It's called _'I Could Eat You Up_!'" Jack announced.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Like Red Riding Hood and the Wolf! That sounds scary!"

"Oh but it's really not!" he reassurred me, holding out his hands. "You'll like it. And since you can't climb to get me an apple..."

I felt bad then. Jack couldn't get the apple he wanted and it was all my fault! Even though he could climb and get it for himself, I felt as if I had let Jack down. It was the least I could do to play his scary soundimg game.

"What do I do, Jack?" I asked rising to my feet.

"Well first you lower the top part of your dress," he told me, grabbing my upperarms.

"I do?" I asked. It sounded like a very odd game already!

"Yes. Do you need help?" he asked, eager to aid me in the first step.

"Please!" I stated, turning around. "Mom always helps me with the buttons."

Jack undid the buttons at the back and then helped in pulling the top half of my small dress down. It felt odd to be standing there with my top lowered and the breeze hitting my now exposed chest and the sun shining on it. The other Toylanders used to joke whenever I bent over that they could see where the sun didn't shine! Now it was shining on my breasts too! I turned around shyly to face Jack again. "Like this?" I asked.

The look on Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s face was so strange! He gulped as he stared at my chest, a dazed look in his eyes, making my chest buttons feel all tingly again and that burning down below start up once more.

"They're so big," he finally commented. "Much bigger than Mary's are. It's strange they keep you acting like a little girl when you're eighteen and you have the body of a woman."

His candlestick was protruding again and I found myself blushing and wishing I could see it. It must have been quite the sight!

"What's the next part of the game?" I asked, my voice suddenly sounding like an adult's in a way, possessing that same peculiar hoarseness which marked Jack's own tone sometimes.

"Lie down, Erin," he instructed.

Nodding, I did. Jack was right there leaning over me as I lay on my back, his eyes on my face but continually darting to my chest.

"What do we do now?" I asked as the man hovered over me.

"Now, I act as if your breasts are two very large apples and I eat them," Jack-be-Nimble Jr. informed.

"Won't that hurt?" I asked frightened.

He shook his head violently back and forth. "Un un. You'll see!"

"Okay Jack!" I said. "I trust you."

At those last few words, Jack looked guilty somehow. But as he gazed at my overlarge chest, he proceeded to play the game and began to eat my breasts.

Only it wasn't like he was _really_ eating them.

Jack just placed his full lips on each breast and seemed to kiss them. And, oh, he was right! It didn't hurt at all! It felt too good to be painful. When Jack's tongue appeared passed his lips and he started licking the sensitive skin on my breasts, I began to squirm beneath him. It felt so _good_. It was crazy but I suddenly felt as if I had an apple between my legs too. Not a big one but one of those small crab ones. It felt as if it was growing bigger and bigger! As Jack took each button in his mouth in turns and began sucking on them as if they were the type found on a baby bottle, which they were starting to look like, my little crab apple got really excited! After a few good suckles, and some sounds escaping out of me which sounded like desperate sighs, I felt it just go crazy! It felt as if it had exploded, causing my whole body to shake.

"OH JACK! OH JACK! OH JACK!" I cried out loudly and he removed his head from my chest to watch me convulse under him proudly.

His pride seemed to fade as he fell backwards and sat down staring at me in unexplained shame. He had apparently won the game; that why he had to have looked so pleased at what had just happened to me, after all. I sat up and saw liquid beginning to puddle under where I was sitting. It made my thighs and the grass wet. I was suddenly afraid Jack was upset for having made me pee. I was about to tell him that I didn't think that was what the stuff was when I saw that his candlestick had gotten huge again. It was the biggest I had ever seen it.

Feeling so sorry for him, I only wanted to fix it for him.

"Kiss and make it better," I told him before I leaned my head down between his legs.

"NO ERIN! DON'T!" he cried out in protest but it was too late.

My lips wrapped around the cloth covered tip of Jack's candlestick and I kissed it, long and deep like Jack had kissed me behind the cookie factory. The fabric was wet already and tasted somewhat bitter and sweet all at once. The moment my lips wrapped around it, I heard Jack cry out loudly as I had done only seconds ago. The candlestick started to twitch and spasm then too and even more liquid seemed to gush out of it. I backed away suddenly in shock and watched as Jack's candlestick did a dance. Looking up into Jack's face I saw that his head was thrown backwards, his eyes closed with this look of pure delight on his face. Seeing his candlestick moving about, the front of his pants getting soaked in the process, while that look of joy was on his face, I felt my own joy returning all throughout my body.

When the candlestick stopped its action and seemed to lie down again, Jack raised his head and looked at me. I looked at the fluid on his crotch. "What is that?" I asked. "Wax or something?"

"Yes," Jack said with a nod. "Wax or something."

* * *

The next day, I walked over to the be-Nimble household and rapped on the door as usual. Only, thos time, Mary came to answer it and not Jack. I stood there awkwardly embarrassed as she glared at me.

"Erin Erin Bare End, my dear husband can't come out to play with you today," she stated with a smirk. "You'll have to play with yourself."

"Oh," I said sadly.

"How have you been anyway?" she asked with sudden sweet insincerity. "Any good run ins with a Go Kart recently?"

I thought then that the mysterious identity of the Go Kart driver whom had almost killed me weeks back wasn't all that much of a mystery.

"I'm good. Well goodbye. I hope you have a wonderful day with Jack," I said, scared more than a little and at the same time worrying if I put up too much of a fuss she'd never let me play with Jack again.

"Wait! So my husband isn't good enough for you, huh?" she exclaimed, suddenly infuriated. "You take _him_ and you play with _him_! He's no good for me and I'll have a much more _wonderful_ day without him!"  
Mary Contrary be-Nimble ran quickly inside of the house and just as quickly pushed her husband out the front door and infront of me. Jack stood there looking horribly sheepish.

I was shocked that she had just essentially thrown her husband at me to do whatever I pleased with.

"Wow! She really _is_ contrary!" I proclaimed in awe.

* * *

We walked to a nearby field and Jack sat quietly as I bent over to pick up the wildlowers which were growing madly everywhere. He was avoiding looking or talking to me. Having enough of his silence, I walked over to him and knelt where he was sitting pouting.

"Here," I said, handing him a bouquet consisting of daisies, dandelions, clover and pansies.

He took them and placed them to his side.

"Why won't you look at me Jack?" I begged, a tear forming in my eye.

"To tell you the truth, I made Mary stay home to see you," Jack said grumpily. "I didn't _want_ to play with you today, Erin."

"Why not Jack?" I cried in pain and sorrow.

"You fixed my candlestick yesterday, Erin...And I was afraid I couldn't help myself from using it on you today if we went out together."

"Oh that's all!" I said in relief. I was worried it was something serious. But Jack used to playfully tap me with his candlestick all of the time.

Still the man wouldn't look up at me. As a last resort, I tackled him onto his back and started to tickle him. While he fought it at first we were both soon laughing. We gave each other small little kisses until Jack was kissing me again in that special way, taking my breath away. His hands went to my back and then bottom. He must have been trying to help pull my dress down only his hand kept underestimating where the dress was so he kept grabbing my bum instead and rubbing it too.

We stopped kissing and I looked down into Jack's thoughtful eyes. He was looking at me with so much love that I wanted to cry. He brushed away some hair from my face. "I'd give almost anything, Erin, so I could be the one to make you an adult...at the same time, I wish you could be childlike for ever."

"I wish you could too," I said and then pressed my forehead against his. 

"If only I hadn't married Mary!"

"Or if they'd just let you unmarry Mary," I declared.

"Then I would be the one who was merry," Jack joked.

"And I would be merry too!" I joked right back and he laughed.

After one more quick kiss, I hopped up to collect more flowers and Jack, in a far better mood, sat up and watched me. As he gazed at me repeatedly bending over to make another bouquet, he picked up the other one I had given to him and started to sing.

_"Erin, Erin has a bare end,_   
_Dress too short and butt too big,_   
_Not enough leaf on any old fig,_   
_See her business when she bends over,_   
_To pick up a flower or any old clover."_

"Oh Jack!" I scolded and turned to look at him. "Not you too!"

He laughed naughtily, leaned back and smelled a clover in his bundle of wildflowers. I shook my head and returned to collecting flowers.

Tired of bending over constantly, I got on my hands and knees to try to gather some nice lilies of the valleys. I was startled when a bee flew out of one suddenly. In swift retribution for destroying its nectar gathering, the perturbed bee flew to my big bare end, which was on full display, and stung my left cheek.

"Oh Jack!" I cried. "A bee stung me! It hurts!"

Jack dropped the flowers immediately and came to kneel behind me. "Where?" he asked, prepared to help.

"My bum," I whimpered.

His hands were soft and forceful on my wounded cheek. "It really got you good, Erin," he remarked sadly. "I don't know what to do. It's not like we brought ointment or salve with us."

Salve was close to saliva and it instantly brought something to mind. "Kiss it and make it better!" I suggested, remembering that I had fixed Jack's candlestick yesterday in the same fashion.

I heard Jack gulping so I turned to look at him.

"Pretty please," I pleaded, desperately and batted my eyelashes.

After another loud swallow, I watched from over my back as Jack gave the bee sting a kiss. "That worked Jack!" I declared feeling warmth where the pain had been only a second before. "Do it again!"

Jack did and much more willingly now as his hands started to massage the surrounding flesh of my butt cheeks. Why infact he didn't just kiss where the bee had stung me! Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was kissing me all over the big butt I was always teased about. And, oh, I was glad it was so big if that meant that there was more for Jack to kiss and make me feel this good!

"Are we playing _'I Could Eat You Up_?'" I inquired elated.

"Yes...yes we are," Jack answered, his voice all rough and funny sounding again.

Then he did something I didn't expect! Jack placed his tongue inbetween my crack and started to slide it all along it. "Oh Jack! That's dirty!" I cried. I never thought Jack would want to eat me there! But he still went on playing the game, his tongue exploring me and making me feel hot and bothered. That old crab apple was back to growing deliciously again. When Jack's tongue dipped farther inside, in between my front and back, I was shocked! There seemed to be another hole there of some kind. I knew about two holes down there, both serving pretty embarrassing but necessary functions, but a _third_? Whatever purpose could _it_ serve? I didn't know but, boy, it felt wonderful to feel Jack's tongue slinking up it! I felt liquid gushing out and could hear him eagery lapping it up behind me.

" _What_...what hole is _that_?" I panted.

I watched Jack take his head out of my bottom and saw my body fluid all over his face. "That's your secret hiding place," he replied after some careful deliberation.

"Oh! What can hide there?" I asked, wondering why I had had a hiding place all of this time and nobody had bothered to tell me about it.

Jack looked like he had thought up some idea that made him very excited. He was getting to his knees now and fumblimg with his belt. He was undoing it hastily and staring down at my big bum and my parted legs. I couldn't help but spreading them a bit as Jack was making me feel so wonderful and that strange bud was blooming again inside of me.

"Candlesticks," Jack whispered as he stared at my butt and the crack I felt was opened widely for him.

"Your candlestick!" I declared. "That's the only one I want

"Don't look Erin. I don't want you to see it," he said in a whisper as if it would be a bad thing.

Even though I wanted to see it so badly, I looked away then, hearing the metal of Jack's belt buckle as it lowered. If Jack said that I shouldn't see it, I had to respect his wishes. He seemed awful protective off it and me too. Waiting for a while and nothing having happened, I was suddenly surprised when I felt something very large being shoved up my secret hole. It felt as if something ripped down there and the pain of it was intense.

"Oh Jack! Oh Jack!" I screamed. "The bee came back and boy did its stinger ever get bigger! It tore me bad! It hurts Jack!"

"That's not a bumblebee, Erin," Jack replied, sounding more strange than I'd ever heard him before. Like each word was strained. "That's my candle...hah...hah...stick."

Oh it didn't make any sense! Jack's candlestick was stainless steel! I'd polished it a few times when I was younger. Whatever was inside of me sure was hard but it felt natural: like wet and slippery flesh. "Oh Jack! Are you sure there's enough room? It feels awfully big! Too big! Maybe I'm too small."

I hadn't been too small for anything in my life! It would be just my rotten luck if I finally _was_ when I only wanted to be big enough for Jack's most treasured possession!

"Just give it a little while," Jack promised sounding very happy. "Let me just wriggle it up and down a bit to just loosen you up and get you used to it."

Jack started to push his candlestick up and down and it hurt at the start but the more he did it the less painful it felt. Infact, it started to feel unbelievably delightful! Jack's strong, large hands were all over the bare end I was famous for while he continued to push the item he was renowned for inside of me. The candlestick felt like it was hitting something deeper within and also that little apple along the way. I was crying out and starting to push my butt backwards too, wanting every single inch of Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s marvellous candlestick to fill my unknown hiding spot.

Jack was making sounds too, getting just as excited and worked up as I was.

"Erin! Oh Erin Bare End!" he was crying as he was grinding away and pushing.

The feeling of pressure was growing again, moving my body helplessly towards that wonderfully spasming. But now I could feel Jack's candlestick being brought to its own bit of frantic convulsing too. Oh! It made me feel so good knowing I had fixed it and it was going to dance, this time inside of my body. This thought was powerful enough, along with some more enthusiastic thrusting from Jack's end, to make me become wracked with that odd and violent trembling again.

"Oh Jack! Jack! JACK! UNHHHHANHH!"

I felt Jack's candlestick doing the same, spurting out its hot candle wax inside of me instead of into the cloth on the front of his pants. It felt, in a way, like that was where it was _supposed_ to go, along with Jack's candlestick. As if some Maker akin to the Toymaster had intentionally _made_ it that way. That there was enough room for all that liquid and Jack's candlestick inside of my body amazed me. I had been wonderfully made. I'd have bet that I could hide a baby inside of me too if I wanted to!

We were both panting and I felt incredibly tired, hot and sweaty in a really sweet way. Everything felt gloriously wet too. Like back there was nothing but fluid making my bottom end all slippery.

"I've gotta take it out now, Erin," Jack found his breath to inform.

"You mean, you don't leave it in?" I asked, although I thought it would probably be hard to walk around if he did.

"No."

I wanted to turn and see Jack's candlestick but he told me not to look again as he pulled it out. When he said it was fine to, I just caught him buckling up his belt and nothing more. I felt so high! Like the cow who jumped over the moon. I got to my knees and threw myself at my friend who caught me. Jack's lips tasted peculiar, as did his mouth, but I didn't care. I'd fixed his candlestick and discovered that it fit my hiding place perfectly too! Mary may get to do those things adults did with Jack-be-Nimble Jr. but I, at least, could help Jack out with those two things.

Jack wouldn't kiss me back at the start, almost like he was very angry with himself. But then he was kissing me passionately and holding me fiercely as if he was afraid he might lose me somehow.

When he walked me home, it was dark. I felt sore and wet under my dress but also extremely happy. At my front door, Jack looked down at me with so much sweetness mingled with sadness that my heart just about broke. "I'm sorry," he whispered and took me in his arms and hugged me fiercely once more.

"What for?" I asked not knowing why he was suddenly so regretful.

"I can't tell you," he whispered and kissed my cheek.

We promised to meet each other again tomorrow and I watched as Jack walked back home, which wasn't that far being only next door. He gave me this weak little wave and seemed so upset that I felt as if I had done something wrong.

"I love you, Jack-be-Nimble Jr.!" I cried out trying to make it better, unafraid who heard me.

"I love you too, Erin, Erin Bare End," he shouted back before hurrying inside of his house, back first, so he could look at me with his brown sorrow filled eyes before he closed the door.

I rushed inside of my own house before I had the chance to hear any whispering going on behind me.

But it was a quiet night.

Only the breeze and the Pied Piper playing a sad dirge on his flute.

That succeeded in unnerving me just as much as anything else in a strange way.

* * *

Later that night, I was awakened as I slept by the sounds of sirens instead of a flute. I ran out of my bedroom and into the sitting room where Justice Grimm stood while my mother was weeping on the sofa and my sister looked sternly upset by her side.

"My poor baby," Mother cried.

"There, there you will be okay," Justice Grimm said as he came to my side and wrapped his arm around my shoulder trying to give me comfort. "Jack won't hurt you anymore."

"But Jack has never hurt me!" I cried.

Grimm looked at me in condescending sympathy and I backed away from him and in horror to the front door, where I quickly rushed out into the night.  
There, across the street, I saw Jack sitting in the prison car. It was just like when he had been arrested after his uncle Barnaby had framed him for the theft of all of the cookies from the factory he was about to inherit, when Lisa Piper (no relation to the Pied) had arrived from Cincinnati. But whereas that time Jack-be-Nimble had looked defiant and innocent, he now merely held his head down in shame and looked very, very...

Guilty.

"Jack!" I cried out as the policeman Teddy Bear drove away with Jack-be-Nimble Jr. sitting dejectedly in a cage behind him, taking the man away from his wife and home and away from me too.

"JACK!" I wailed louder than I ever have before in my life and tried to run after them.

But my friend, in his self hatred, would not look at me no matter how many times I called out his name.

Not even once.

Even though I had helped him fix his candlestick and found a place to hide it, Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was still the most miserable man I had ever seen.


	3. A Nasty Old Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack goes on trial for reasons I'm not exactly sure of!

I was taken to see Doctor Foster and he examined me very throughly. Especially that embarrassing place where Jack had briefly hidden his candlestick inside of me. I preferred Jack looking at me there not the Doctor who didn't love me like Jack and who just kept shaking his head and looking at me with sad eyes. I was sad too but not for some medical reason the Doctor had discovered. I was sad because my Jack-be-Nimble Jr. had been locked up away from me and we couldn't play "I Could Eat You Up" ot "Hide the Candlestick" anymore. Anytime I got to thinking of Jack being all locked up in his little cell, I started to cry, wishing that I could be there with him.

"There, there," Justice Grimm said once when he found me weeping inside of his chamber one day. "We'll make sure that Jack pays for what he did to you!"

"But what did Jack do to me?!?" I exclaimed, wiping my eyes. "Nobody will tell me! I'm crying because you locked him away in that cold and lonely cell and now he can't come out and play with me anymore!"

Justice Grimm looked at me with stern disapproval. "Oh but he's not allowed to play with you ever again Erin Erin Bare End!" the law upholder informed me. "This trial will make sure of it."

I sat in the chair in the Justice's chamber and wept some more, my chest heaving from my sobs. Then Grimm began to look at me all funny like. It was the same way that Jack would look at me which was adult like and would make me feel uncomfortable and hot and happy all over. I liked it when Jack looked at me that way because I knew that he loved me and I loved him right back. There was no love in Justice Grimm's eyes when he was staring at me like that though. I felt like a giant cookie that the old man wanted to eat.

"Now Erin," he said, placing his arm on my shoulder but letting his hand dip lower until it touched my left breast. "Would you mind showing to me exactly _what_ Jack-be-Nimble Jr. did to you that day in the field? You know the one where you two were ' _playing_ ' together before Jack was arrested?"

Hesitantly, I stood up. "Well I was picking flowers on my hands and knees when a bee stung my bottom!" I related dropping to all fours. "Then I asked Jack to kiss it. That was when he found my extra hole, the one where I can hide things. Jack told me it was for candlesticks so I let him hide his there!"

The more I was thinking about it the more wet and gushy I was getting back there. I didn't mention how Jack's candlestick had been broken before but how I had fixed it for him, not wanting Jack to get embarrassed over it. It would look better if I proved that I could keep my mouth zipped tight and didn't babble his secrets all over Toyland. It still bothered me about who had told about what Jack and I had been doing that day in the field. I didn't want my friend to think it was me!.

"Hey! Who was the dirty bird that squealed on me and Jack anyway?" I asked as I turned to look at Justice Grimm from over my shoulder.

Boy! Was I ever grateful I did too! Old Grimm had lifted up his long robe and was fumbling with the belt of his trousers. He was staring at my bum in that hungry way Jack would wear. There seemed to be something in his trousers too! I didn't think it was a candlestick, that was my beloved Jack's candle-schtick but just incase the Justice thought he could go and hide something in my hole now too that Jack had broken me in, I rose to my feet and rushed to the door. I looked at him and pouted. "That place is only for Jack's candlestick!" I chastised him, peeking around from the other side of the door. "He's the only one!"

Justice Grimm was dropping his robe, his face flushed red with anger and looking just about as guilty as could be!

"Foolish little girl!" he spat. "Nobody would want it but that deviant Jack-be-Nimble Jr.! I don't know what you erroneously thought you saw but you'd better keep your mouth shut! By the way, did Jack hide his candlestick _there_ too?"

My face blushing, thinking of when I had kissed the candlestick through the wet front seat of Jack's trousers, I hurried from the chamber and out of the courthouse.

Holding myself, I thought of Grimm calling me a little girl...But I _wasn't_ a little girl anymore! My body looked just the same as the adult women's did! My chest was heavy like theirs and my big bottom which hung out too. Just nobody would let me know what the taboo little secret to adulthood was. Why the girls tops got bigger, their hips got wider...And why the boys voices deepened and they seemed to have stuff always stuffed in the front of their pants like Justice Grimm.

Or my sweet Jack-be-Nimble Jr.

Remembering that he was in the jailhouse on the other side of Grimm's chamber, I went and tossed a rock at all of the prison windows until a familiar face appeared through the bars.

"Erin!" Jack said, gazing down at me while he gripped a bar in each of his hands.

"Jack!" I exclaimed in delight. "I'm so happy to see you! Oh how I've missed you, Jack!"

"You shouldn't be here, Erin," he stated in kind reproach.

"But I wanted to tell you that it wasn't me that told on you hiding your candlestick in me!" I cried out balefully. "I wanted you to know!"

"I do Erin," he said, resting his face against one bar so his cheek was smooshed into it. "It was some of Widow Hubbard's children, Little Jack Horner and Little Miss Muffet. But even if they hadn't, I'd been thinking about turning myself in. I wanted to plead guilty but they wouldn't let me."

"But what _for_?" I asked, confused. "What are you _guilty_ of?"

He gazed down at me as if he couldn't bear to answer the question. His eyes were so sweet and brown and I wished I had brought a million Valentines to toss up to him. "I did a very _bad_ thing to you, Erin," he finally said.

" _What_?" I asked, my eyes wide, trying to figure out what bad thing Jack had done without my knowing.

"I...I can't tell you."

I looked to the ground and sighed. Nobody would tell me _anything_ and all I was doing was _suffering_ by _not_ knowing! "Well, when you get out can we go out and play?"

Jack looked sorrowful once more. "Even if I get out we can't ever play together again," he dreadfully confessed. "I'll only want to hide my candlestick in you again and that goes against Toyland rules. If I do it I'll break my 'Happily Ever After' with Mary! I'd be exiled from Toyland! Never allowed to return!"

I wanted to tell him that I'd go with him! Being by his side in the Forest of the Night, or whatever else was on the other side of it, was better than staying in Toyland without him. But then I heard a commotion in Jack's cell and he was pulled away from the window and suddenly Justice Grimm was staring down at me sternly. "Erin Erin Bare End you naughty, little girl! You are only supporting the defense that you encouraged what Jack-be-Nimble Jr. did to you! You will get our case dismissed on the grounds of entrapment too! Now get back to your house and think about what you have done!"

"What _did_ we do?!?" I asked but the elder's face disappeared and I watched helplessly as they boarded up Jack's window so I couldn't talk to him anymore.

Walking home, I comforted myself with the fact that I would see him at the trial, at least. It was my only comfort. Everybody was looking at me and whispering. It was better when they did that and Jack was standing strong and walking with me, shielding me from the gossip. Now I was alone and I could sense every eye on me and several fingers pointing. The children said things and I could tell they shared my ignorance of what had truly happened to me. Still that didn't stop them from making jokes about my big, bare bottom end and Jack's face kissing it. Apparently the Hubbard children had seen that part.

The adults looked at me in a different way. They'd shake their heads and tsk under their breath. Some looked at me in pity while others looked like I should be in the jailhouse along with my incarcerated friend.

In truth, that would have been fine with me.

But...

Those looks...well...they still hurt.

* * *

Back at home, things weren't much better. I kept asking to have it explained to me why what Jack had done to me was wrong but my mom and sister didn't want to talk about it. If I didn't talk about it they could pretend it hadn't happened. They seemed only angry that I was still in love with Jack-be-Nimble Jr. and that I missed him so terribly bad.

At night, things were even worse! I'd lie in my bed and feel...funny. It was like Jack had broken me in a way when he had played "I Could Eat You Up" and "Hide the Candlestick" with me. My body felt...odd. Awake somehow. Those funny pink buttons on my chest longed to feel his lips around them and tongue teasing them to pop them out again! And that secret hole between my legs wanted him to stick his candlestick inside of it once more! Thinking about it all, my little crab apple got all swollen and excited again wanting Jack's attention too! It kept waiting for that explosion and shaking which had happened but got awfully frustrated when it didn't. I lay on my bed once, my dress pulled down to my waist and fooling around with my buttons. While it felt okay it didn't feel as good as when Jack did it. I couldn't dare bring myself to put anything inside of the hole except for Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s candlestick but when my hand went exploring down there I found that angry little crab apple! It enjoyed it a heck of a lot when I rubbed it! I'd lie on my back pulling on my buttons and pressing that apple and my body would suddenly do that quaking thing again. Only it didn't feel as good as when Jack was involved and nowhere near as pleasurable as when he was kissing my breasts, buttons and crab apple and sticking his candlestick way up my hiding hole!

My mother came in once while I was playing by myself the games Jack had taught me. I guess, the noises I was making had earned her attention. Specially when I started calling out his name, picturing that he was the one making me so happy! She seemed awfully upset and gave me a scolding! I was told they were adult games not meant for little children like me.

"I'm not a child anymore, mom," I told her, excited by the piece of revelation finally that Jack was in trouble because he had been playing adult games with me. "But I'll always be _your_ little girl," I reassured her.

My mother swept down and hugged me, kissing the top of my head and ignoring the fact that my fingers had gunk all over 'em.

* * *

The day of the trial of Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was just as bright as the day that had caused the whole thing: the day when I had picked flowers in the field on the outskirts of Toyland and Jack had found out that his candlestick fit my hiding place just as well as Baby Bear's bed fit Goldilocks. Being the prosecuter, Justice Grimm was not allowed to play the role of Judge this time so the Toymaster graciously stepped in. This suited me just fine! The Toymaster was always so kind! I knew that he would be willing to give Jack a fair and juste verdict for only having engaged me in the playing of games meant solely for adults.

Jack's legal representation was Wee Willie Winkie. I'd heard it said that he had torn his britches once by running after an ambulance. In any case, the adults seemed to get a laugh over the lawyer's name and that this was the only man willing to take Jack's case. They said Mr. Winkie was just over compensating for the wee-ness of his willie. Whatever that meant.

I sat on one side of the courtroom while Jack sat on the other. Trying to get the man I loved's attention sure was difficult! He stared at the floor for the most part and hardly looked at me. One time I did catch him stealing a glimpse and I offered him a happy little wave. He just offered me the same sad, longing gaze and I frowned when he turned and looked the other way, as if he felt only shame and guilt by seeing me.

Justice Grimm addressed Judge Toymaster first, apparently happy that most of the adults in Toyland had shown up for the Trial and he could put on a show for them all. I sat and fumed that the man was taking this whole case as little more than a campaign for his next selection. Jack's freedom was on the line! The well being of my heart was at stake for it would surely break if Jack had to stay locked up! It wasn't the time for self promotion! And the crowd watching him was no better! An audience of vultures (my having begged my mom and sis not to come) all there for some entertainment! Georgie Porgie was handing out free cookies from Jack's own factory as if poor Jack hadn't been his best friend once upon a time.

"Dear Honourable Toymaster and Ladies and Gentlemen of Toyland," Grimm began. "We are here to prove that Jack-be-Nimble Jr. is guilty of a most heinous and cruel crime. Introducing a Toyland Innocent to the ways of Adults before her marriage and while he was married to another! He took Erin Erin Bare End, without consent, because she was alone, unpopular, fat, unwanted and vulnerable!"

I started to tear up, hearing the prosecutor's words. I felt so ugly and unlovable! Jack-be-Nimble Jr. made a motion to stand but Wee Willie Winkie clasped his hand firmly and made him sit back down.

Justice Grimm turned away from the Toymaster and his eyes swept his enraptured audience. Tugging on a lapel to his robe he addressed them with the rest of his opening statement.

_"Jack be nimble,_   
_Jack be quick,_   
_Jack decided to play himself a trick,_   
_Seeing Erin Erin Bare End feeling rather sick,_   
_And telling her it was only his famous candlestick,_   
_Jack dropped his drawers and shoved into her body his big, angry and ready..."_

The audience gasped in unison and I pouted because I couldn't hear what that last word was. Knowing Jack wouldn't hurt me, I was still was struggling to find out what exactly he had done which had caused all of this hoopla. I had one more clue now though: whatever Jack had stuck into my hiding hole _hadn't_ been his broken and fixed candlestick at all! This threw me for a loop and my eyes darted to my friend, whom looked at me sheepishly, his cheeks burning bright red.

"Ummm...I couldn't hear," the Toymaster stated, calling Grimm to the bench. "Was that errr...P-R-dash-dash-dash or D-dash-dash-dash?"

"Does it really make a difference?" Grimm asked with a weary sigh.

"Oh," the Toymaster said. "I just always assumed that the latter was larger than the former."

Wee Willie Winkie, whom had been falling asleep (Jack sure had chosen the right counsel if he was hoping to lose,) immediately sprang to his feet as he heard the topic of discussion. "Do we _really_ need to turn this into a size contest?" he protested.

"It felt like a D-dash-dash-dash," I said, trying to be helpful and remembering quite fondly whatever Jack had tried to pass off as his candlestick and thrusted energetically inside of me.

Everybody gasped and looked at me, even Jack, whom gulped, and was looking at me in that way which I always associated with his poor candlestick poking up. Only...errr...it wasn't a candlestick anymore, I had finally learned.

"Nevermind," Grimm spat in irritation. "What matters is that we all know what it _really_ was!"

" _I_ don't!" I cried but the Justice only hurried over quickly to me and patted my head.

"Poor child," he stated more to the Toymaster then me and sat down.

Judge Toymaster turned to Winkie. "You can make your statement now."

Wee Willie Winkie stood and yawned. "Jack-be-Nimble Jr. is innocent," was all he said before falling back into his seat.

Once again I was convinced Jack wanted to stay locked up!

The first witness was called.

Widow Hubbard's youngest entered the courtroom and was led to the stand where Grimm approached her. "Little Miss Muffet," he stated, too sugary sweet. "What were you doing out on the day you saw Jack-be-Nimble Jr. and Erin Erin Bare End...ummm... _playing_ with each other?"

"I was sitting on my tuffet behind a tree and eating my curds and whey."

The tree explained why neither Jack nor myself had seen her, I realized regretfully.

"And what did you see?"

The girl looked confused and unsure exactly what she _had_ seen. "Well...Jack looked like he was eating Erin! His head was right up against her fat end! Then...well I didn't quite see but it looked like he was trying to play leap frog with her. Only he was stuck..."

The crowd gasped and tittered.

"He was stuck?" the prosecutor repeated, condescendingly.

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Boy did it ever look like he was having a hard time jumping over her! But she's so _big_ , no wonder!"

I scowled at the child, feeling close to making the next case handled in the courtroom one of murder.

"Jack had this look on his face, so did Erin. Like they were kind of in shock, kind of in pain and kind of very happy too!"

"And what happened after that Little Miss?"

"Oh, I didn't see," she replied. "A big old scary spider sat down beside me and frightened me away!"

Justice Grimm looked exceedingly pleased regardless of her having been frightened and hightailing it. He dismissed her, calling on her brother next.

"And what were you doing out in the field, Little Jack Horner?"

"Oh, I was sleeping in the tall grass," the boy answered.

That explained why we hadn't seen _him_ either.

"What did you see Jack-be-Nimble Jr. _doing_ to Erin Erin Bare End?"

"Oh he was playing football with her! I tried to explain that to my dummy sister but, being a _girl_ , she didn't understand!"

I quickly looked to Little Miss Muffett. Now she looked as if she would beat me to homicide first, wanting to be put on trial next for offing her older brother.

"Football you say!" Justice Grimm said coyly. "How so?"

"Well...it was the passing the ball at the start," Horner said. "Jack was waiting for Erin Erin Bare End to pass him the ball between her legs, but being a _girl_ , she was doing it all wrong and didn't know how to play, being on her hands and knees and all. There wasn't even a pigskin in her hands!"

Another wave of shocked titillation from the audience.

"That will be all for Mr. Horner," Grimm stated. "I call his mother Widow Hubbard to take the stand next your honourable Toymaster."

Widow Hubbard sat in the box looking exceedingly angry.

"Throw them both in jail!" she spat looking between Jack and I with outrage. "Hurting poor Mary and making me dodge embarrassing questions from my brats...err...children."

"I demand we declare this witness hostile," Grimm stated.

The Toymaster inquired, "I can see that for myself. Didn't you two date?"

"Yes," Grimm said woefully and the Judge nodded.

Turning his attention back to the widow, the prosecutor asked her how it happened to be that she had learned from her children about Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s devious activities out in the field that fateful day. "I caught my two sweet angels _re-enacting_ it!" she cried in outrage. "Right there in my shoe! They were arguing about whether it was leap frog or football but _I_ knew what it _was_!"

"With all those children she _would_!" I heard someone whisper behind me and saw none other than Barnaby Barnacle sitting beside Mary Contrary-be-Nimble. They laughed to each other and I felt horrified knowing whom the next witness Grimm would be calling was!

"Dirty perverts!" Widow Hubbard cried out. "They'd been traipsing around town together before that. Jack neglecting the cookie factory to watch her skipping rope! Her chest going up and down like she was smuggling two Honeydews with minds of their own! Lock em both up for being bad influences! She's just as bad!" she said pointing at me. "Showing her big butt off wherever she goes and her muffin! At least, get her a pair of bloomers for crying out loud!"

I was very confused. First I had heard that Mary had a pie she supposedly carried with her wherever she went. Now I had a muffin I was heretofore unaware of! I would have to ask Jack next time we were alone what was going on. If God still was listening to me enough to answer my prayer and free my friend, that was.

"She's excused!" Grimm shouted.

Grumbling Hubbard left and the Justice's eyes found Mary in the audience. As they rested on her, he seemed to gloat silently. "The prosecution calls Mary Contrary-be-Nimble to the stand."

He was calling on Mary in order to denounce her husband and cast Jack in a bad light! What would I do? Being his wife she held some power. The Toymaster had been the one to marry Jack and Mary after all. He would side with her, probably unaware of Mary's own poor behavior.

Mary sat down in the box beside the Judge's seat. She looked up at him all innocence and flowers.

"How long have you known about your husband's infatuation with Erin Erin Bare End, Mrs Contrary-be-Nimble?" Grimm asked, leaning towards her.

"Ever since a few months after we first got married," Mary answered. "He started to say her name in his sleep. He'd peek out the window to catch a glimpse of her fat, bare end skipping down the street. And then he started having difficulty performing his husbandly duties."

The darn crowd started up again and I heard Barnaby snicker. I looked to Jack in sympathy. I had to think of a way out fast for him...

"So Mrs Contrary..."

That was it!

"Psssst!" I quickly interrupted.

Grimm looked at me, as did Jack from across the courtroom. The prosecutor left Mary sitting there annoyed. I stood, leaned over the table and whispered into the man's ear, "Lay it on real thick to her about how _bad_ Jack is!" I told him.

The Justice backed up and looked at me in apparent shock that I was suddenly helping him. I gave him a wink and he seemed to buy it. He returned to the stand. Grabbing both of his lapels he stared at the witness. "Your husband is the most _vile_ and _reprehensible_ creature, a _swine_ , isn't that right?"

Mary Contrary looked up at him aghast. "Most certainly _not_!" she contradicted. "My Jack is an _innocent_ and _respectable_ angel, a _saint_!"

"Your husband should rot away in a prison cell for the rest of his life!" Grimm spat at her, taken off guard by her abrupt change in opinion since their pre-trial briefing.

"How _dare_ you! He should be out in the open air for the whole of his existence!"

"But he corrupted a minor! Took advantage of her!"

"He wouldn't do such a thing!" she retaliated. "She's old enough anyway! She probably took advantage of my sweet Jack!"

"But you're a mistreated wife!" Grimm proclaimed, no doubt, returning to the portrait Mary had painted of herself during their meetings.

"Ha!" Mary laughed, folding her arms. "He's the abused one not me. I run around behind his back!"

"You're a sweetie pie!"

"Well, that's what I've been sharing with any guy that will let me," Jack's wife confessed proudly. "Not to mention I hotwired a Go Kart and tried to run Little Miss Big Butt down with it!"

I covered my mouth with my hand and laughed into it despite the insult. Having one of the star witnesses in the case admit to attempted murder wasn't exactly what Justice Grimm had been hoping for.

"YOU ARE DISMISSED!" he yelled at her. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"I'M STAYING!" Mary hurled back.

Eventually two Teddy Bears were called in and picked the thin woman up out of the box and returned her to her seat. I was so happy! I could see the Toymaster's face. He was confused by the contradicting testimony from Mary, sometimes witnesses contradicted themselves unintentionally but rarely did they do it on purpose and with such gusto.

It looked like Jack might be set free!

Then Jack-be-Nimble Jr. stood up, himself, waking up his sleeping defense attorney in the process. "I want to take the stand!" Jack demanded.

"No- _ooooo_ " Mr. Winkie protested and yawned at the same time but his client was already sitting down in the witness box. He still couldn't bring himself to look at me, though, and my heart broke.

Jack started talking without eaither lawyer needing to question him. "I just want to say that I _am_ guilty! Guilty as charged! I took advantage of Erin Erin Bare End!"

The crowd went crazy! You could hardly hear yourself think! Only the sound of Judge Toymaster beating his gavel on the wood before him seemed to break through it and restore the courtroom to some semblance of peace.

"Quiet...let the boy speak!" the Toymaster ordered.

"But I'm _not_ a boy anymore," Jack said looking up at the older man sadly. "And I _wish_ that I was...it was easier before. I miss just being able to play and not needing to worry about bills, profits or the cookie factory...and that thing that adults did but I never understood before...When I got married and tasted what it was like to be an adult it all got so insane! Mary and I we didn't fit together...we changed and I wished we would have been given the chance to find that out before we went and got married!"

He turned to look at me finally and seemed ashamed by what he was about to confess. "And you, Erin...you were there looking so sweet and pretty... It's funny though, when we were both kids you were just another girl to me. Oh, I liked you but...I hate to say it, and I'm painfully sorry about it, believe me please, but I'd join in when the other boys would start singing your rhyme 'Erin Erin Bare End' and I wouldn't think anything of it...only I tried never to do it when you were around so I wouldn't hurt your feelings..."

I nodded, watering up again, not wanting him to feel bad and to know that I loved and forgave him.

He continued sorrowfully. "But then, after I got married, I started seeing you differently. Your big bottom hanging out wasn't something that made me want to laugh anymore or your chest pressing against your dress which is too small and tight. Instead it made me feel...well you adults _know_ what it made me feel."

They murmured in their secret and hidden from my knowledge agreement.

"And I would see Mary whom I no longer felt that way for and whom I knew did not feel that way for me. And I just wished that I had felt for Erin what I always did, love without attraction, love for a child...And I wish that I could have stayed in love with Mary...but I couldn't. I didn't and I can't help that.

"But you said I took Erin because she was vulnerable and weak and unwanted but I, I _Jack-be-Nimble Jr._ took her because I _wanted_ her! I didn't see a girl who was fat or alone or whom could be taken down easily. I saw a woman, a _grown_ woman, that loved me and who I had fallen in love with right back!"

He stared at me intensely as if he was trying to burn into my soul the truth and sincerity of his words. I held my hand to my heart to show him that I did.

"That day in the orchard and in the field I saw Erin and it seemed a sin that we loved each other that way but we'd never be together...she was so much a woman...at the same time, she was still wonderfully like a little girl. I wanted to be with her but I never wanted her to grow up and be as miserable as I was...I would have given anything and I guess I have...I have given my freedom.

"So I made...I made _love_ to her in the form of a game, without her knowing or her consent...so I should be locked away."

He had made _love_ to me out in the field? That was the game we had really been playing? We were making love!?! 

"See, he admits it!" Justice Grimm declared, foreseeing victory and something to tout for his re-election.

Standing up, I begged, "Please, Mr. Toymaster, can I _please_ take the stand?"

Grimm just about exploded in anger and Jack shook his head, determined to needlessly punish himself for something he felt he had done wrong and feed his shame and self hatred in so doing.

"Oh! Pretty please with a cherry on top?" I pleaded.

"She don't have one of those anymore after Jack," I heard Barnaby Barnacle comment.

"Oh shut up!" I snapped at him, tired of all this food talk I couldn't understand.

He looked affronted but grumbled in silence.

"Yes," the Toymaster said, and I spun my head quickly to look at him. "You can take the stand, Erin."

The Judge then turned to look down at Jack, who was still sitting in the box. "You may step down now, Jack."

My love looked hesitant and we passed each other as I went to take his place. My hands had a life of their own and wrapped themselves around the man before he could leave me without so much as a touch. No. They didn't. I hugged Jack-be-Nimble Jr. because _I_ wanted to. And that was what this all came down to: what I did and didn't want.

Although in the beginning he just stood there unmoving, Jack soon melted in my embrace and held me back, starved apparently for my affection.

"Oh Erin," he whispered while everybody in the courthouse whispered in their unkind judgement.

"Please take the stand," the Toymaster urged in sympathy.

I separated from Jack slowly and sat in the box, looking at the Judge, Jack, Winkie, Grimm and the other citizens of Toyland shyly as I spoke.

"I don't know why in Toyland we keep what adults do to one another secret...maybe because, from what I now know, it feels so good, we are trying to protect them from doing it without understanding that it isn't all fun and games...I understand that. At the same time, I think that we cannot protect them from it without them _knowing_ something about it...so what you think happened to me doesn't happen to somebody else...for _real_...because you keep acting that what Jack did to me was wrong because I _didn't_ know what was happening to me...but I'm here to say that, if I _had_ known, if he were to tell me what he was about to do to me without keeping it from me, I _would_ have let him. Right before Jack put his candlestick...err...whatever it was inside of me, I had told him that I wished he could show me what being an adult was like...so if this big mess is because I didn't say 'yes' well I'm saying it now! I willingly made love to Jack-be-Nimble Jr...I give him my permission. Yes, Jack-be-Nimble Jr., you can make love to me!"

As the Toyland citizens went berserk in their reaction to my late given consent, Jack's eyes met mine and we stared at one another lovingly across the room and admist the bedlam.

The Toymaster used his gavel once more. He looked at me kindly. "Are you certain you know, Erin, what you are saying?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" I cried. "A million times yes. I am not a victim Mr. Toymaster. I am Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s _accomplice_."

"MISTRESS!" Widow Hubbard yelled. 

This time when the crowd fell into disarray, the kindly old Toymaster stood and used his most imposing voice to stop the defeaning din. "In light of recent testimony I have no choice but to declare Jack-be-Nimble Jr. innocent and Erin Erin Bare End _less_ so. Case dismissed!"

Among another outburst of uproar in the courtroom, I went to rush to Jack who was a free man once more. Only Mary Contrary stepped in the way first, holding on to her husband possessively and reminding me that Jack-be-Nimble Jr. wasn't such a free man after all.

"I _beg_ you to step away from my husband, Erin Erin Bare End! I'm taking him home!" she hissed and my heart felt as if it might as well have been under the Toymaster's gavel and smashed into a million tiny pieces.

And Jack still looked just as miserable as always.


	4. On the Other Side of the Forest of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Jack is exiled from Toyland, I make the decision to join him. However when the trolls in the Forest of the Night intend to eat us, Jack and I find an interesting way to ward them off.

I thought about trying reverse psychology on Mary again to make her give Jack to me but suddenly that felt very _wrong_. It was fine when I feared she was dead set on painting a wicked and false portrait of Jack so she could put him away behind bars. But now that Jack-be-Nimble Jr. was a free man it didn't feel right to lie. Nor did running around with her husband behind her back; he and I playing together.

Or making love as they had called it.

I just wanted to be with my Jack, without all of the hiding and secrets.

That was when my eyes went to Jack-be-Nimble Jr. and I saw his expression change from one of misery to one of brave resolve instead. Breaking free of Mary's hold on him, the man took his wife by the shoulders and looked into her eyes with a look of sad kindness. "Mary Contrary," he began. "I loved you very much once upon a time. You made my heart about as high as the cow jumping over the moon...but we didn't stay those two people did we?"

Mary looked at him with confusion and understanding in her dark eyes and I could see tears forming inside of them too.

"It was fun to _think_ we were in love and easy because everybody supported the idea of it," Jack said with regret. "They said how perfect we looked together, what a wonderful couple we made together. But when we were married, behind that closed door, we didn't quite fit, did we?"

I watched in shock as Mary started to shake her head and weep. "No, we didn't Jack," she admitted. "That's...that's why I became so contrary. There seemed to be two things always: what people expected and what actually was. I...I found out that I really am in love with Barnaby Barnacle. I just couldn't admit it to myself because everybody thought he was horrid and too old. But I love him, Jack. Just like you are in love with Erin Erin Bare End."

Jack looked down at her with deepest sympathy and held her closely to him suddenly, an act which caused within me no jealousy but only a certain kind of sadness for two people whom had fallen together before either had been old enough to know what they truly wanted. Mary started to cry more violently as she hugged her husband.

"I set you free, Mary Contrary," Jack-be-Nimble Jr. stated.

"Now _NOW_!" Justice Grimm suddenly shouted, coming over towards us. "You two _have_ to stay together! It is the law! Anybody who breaks a Happily Ever After is sentenced to live outside of Toyland and in the Forest of the Night!"

I could tell that Grimm thought that this would stop the married couple from separating and insure their continued misery, having to stay together to help perpetuate the image of Toyland's wonderful romantic unions. But he obviously underestimated the bravery and giving nature of my precious Jack.

"I'm the one who is breaking Mary and mine's Happily Ever After. She can stay here and marry Barnaby!" he announced for everyone to hear.

Justice Grimm looked completely flustered and irritated while my heart was rapidly beating at the thought of Jack leaving me and facing the dreaded Forest of the Night all by himself! "Marry Barnaby Barnacle?!?" Grimm exclaimed. "But that's where we were before! You know, when that little girl showed up from Cincinnatti! What was all the _point_?"

"We _learn_ from our mistakes," the Toymaster popped up to muse both correctly and with a fair amount of pretension. Meanwhile, Mary and Barnaby rushed to one another in joy.

"Well Jack-be-Nimble Jr. will have all the time to learn from those mistakes as he is devoured by the trolls in the Forest!" Justice Grimm gloated while he folded his arms.

"But...but can't Mary and Jack _un_ marry and can't Jack stay here?" I ran up to the Toymaster at his bench and pleaded desperately.

"I'm afraid not," the old man told me sadly. "He has broken one of Toyland's most important laws, Erin Erin Bare End."

I turned to meet Jack's sorrowful gaze. "Don't feel too bad for me, Erin," he tried to comfort. "I'll have my memories of the time we had together. That will give me all of the courage I need to face and survive the Forest of the Night."

Nodding my head in my own resolve, I refused to let the man I loved suffer alone for the sake of a woman he had loved once very much too. Running to the side of the cookie factory owner, I boldly declared, "You need not rely on memories to give you strength alone, Jack-be-Nimble Jr.! You shall have me there with you as we create some new ones together in that dark and scary forest!"

Now it was Barnaby Barnacle's turn to be flabbergasted. "But that's crazy!" he insulted as he held his Mary Contrary. "Why would you want to leave everything here to possibly be killed? Or, at the very least, be uncomfortable when you don't need to be?"

I looked into Jack's eyes and grabbed his arms. "Because I'd rather be dead than to live without him. And there would be no comfort in all of Toyland for me if he wasn't here by my side."

While my words seemed to perplex Barnacle all the more, Jack quickly pulled me to him and kissed me passionately. It no longer mattered to the man if anybody saw him kissing me the way he kissed Mary or the fact that his hands had gone to my rear end to enthusiastically stroke my fat, bare bottom.

* * *

When I told my mother and sister that I was leaving Toyland with Jack-be-Nimble Jr., they both started to cry. I hated to cause them sorrow and I prayed to God that He would find a way to let me see them again. But I loved Jack. He made me feel whole in a way that my mom and my sister didn't completely. It was as if I were half a person and Jack had the things that had been left out. I could tell that he felt that way too. While I loved my family, the love I felt for the man was different. It was friendship and family and something else which made me excited, scared and happy all at once. Just thinking about it made my heart feel as if it was glowing and that strange tingling start up between my legs again.

There was also something I couldn't tell my mother and sister although it hurt me and always had. I loved them and they loved me; I never doubted that. But sometimes I felt as if they did not wholly _understand_ me. Sometimes being with my mom and sister, I felt broken and as if they were ashamed or frustrated with me. Jack _did_ understand me. And when he didn't, he never looked at me like I was weird. I had this funny feeling that that was a whole lot of what love was really all about: Of understanding someone and not making them feel bad when you didn't.

While I was saying goodbye to my bedroom, which I found I would miss too, having spent all of my nights there, my eyes rested on my dresser with all of the clothes I couldn't wear due to the stupid rhyme I had been given. But if I was leaving Toyland, the last few words of my name were no longer necessary, I soon realized with a smile.  
  
When I met with Jack, it was close to sunset and a great crowd had gathered at the edge of town to see us off. The Toymaster was there and Justice Grimm; Widow Hubbard and her many children were there also, even though I suspected she was only there to make sure our banishment was successfully carried out. Mary was in the arms of Barnaby Barnacle while Georgie Porgie ate a cookie and promised Jack he'd take good care of the factory until he came back. I kissed Tara and my mother goodbye and walked to the man's side once more. He stared at me in my green cloak and dress and then looked to my back end.

"I must admit I'm going to miss seeing your bare end, Erin, but you sure do look beautiful."

I leaned towards him and whispered into his ear so the other Toyland citizens wouldn't overhear, "You can see and fondle my bare end anytime you wish, Mr. Be-Nimble Jr. All you have to do is ask me nicely."

Jack smiled ever brightly then.

"FOR BREAKING HIS HAPPILY EVER AFTER WITH HIS WIFE MARY CONTRARY," Grimm announced loudly, "IT IS HEREBY DECREED THAT JACK-BE-NIMBLE JR. BE EXILED FROM TOYLAND FOREVER!"

"Well, maybe then, I'll be looking after the factory for longer than I expected," Georgie told Jack, appending his earlier statement and the former cookie factory owner frowned in irritation at his friend and successor.

I kissed Jack's cheek before we walked hand in hand into the Forest of the Night, the crowd waving and calling out their farewells to us. From the tone of their voices, it was obvious they believed with all of their hearts and souls that they would never see us again and I briefly wondered if they would write a rhyme about that too.

* * *

The Forest was just as dark and frightening as they always said it was but with Jack by my side I wasn't as scared as I might have been. He held my hand and helped my chubby frame over this fallen tree trunk or that. Why he even helped me find the courage to swing over a ravine or two! Having been here before, Jack seemed to know his way around a bit and it was actually kind of nice because it was so different from Toyland and its bright colors. Looking at the Forest's dark and muted shades along with its sometimes rough terrain, I thought to myself how nice it would be if a place existed like that but wasn't so dangerous; where things weren't always so colorful but could be more subtle too and where things weren't always so sugary sweet. I told this to Jack and he held me from behind, squeezing my large tummy in the circle made by his arms. "I like the sound of that, Erin," he said. "As long as you were there, I could live anywhere!"

Oh boy, that made me feel good! For a second, I thought I saw a flash of light through the thick foliage but I told myself I was just making things up.

After some more walking about, Jack decided that it was time for us to try to get some sleep. The only problem was that after a few minutes of lying next to each other we both heard noises in the woods surrounding us.

"Jack!" I said in fright, sitting up.

My love took me in his arms as we looked at the shadows which seemed to be moving around us. "It's the trolls, Erin!" he said. "They must have been waiting for us to stop moving so they could attack!"

More noises and movement came to us and we held on to each other even tighter. "I'm so sorry!" my man apologized. "I've gotten you killed, Erin, all because I couldn't keep it in my pants!"

That got my mind right off of those nasty old monsters swarming in the dark forest. If I was gonna die, I wanted to see what Jack-be-Nimble Jr. had been telling me was his candlestick all this time: the thing he had _really_ put inside of me that day in the field when he had made love to me.

"Jack," I said, my fingers going to the front of his pants. "Can I see it?"

I felt something long, chubby and tubular attatched to the man down there. As I touched it, I felt it get bigger and move! Once again it struck me how it was actually attatched to my Jack-be-Nimble Jr.! It wasn't some separate thing but a part of him, a part which seemed to have a mind of its own! This was further proven when Jack exhaled sharply and said, "Oh no! I don't think now is quite the time, Erin. Not when we're about to be devoured by hungry trolls!"

Still, seeing my imploring gaze, Jack sighed and stood to undo his belt. While he did, he looked down at me with a certain shame. "Now I don't want you to be scared, Erin. It can be kind of scary."

When Jack lowered his pants and I saw what the object he had been passing off as his candlestick looked like, I did gasp because it _was_ kind of scary looking! It looked like my precious Jack had this swollen and red snake standing up on the area below his waist! Above it, I could see a patch of curly hair just like the embarrassing patch I had! But below his fat, angry serpent, he had these ball like things which I certainly _didn't_ have! Oh but that tube thing looked so big and sore! I could see these veins under it and the top of it was more bulbous than the other area. Even though it was kind of frightening, just like the Forest of the Night, it possessed its own loveliness too. Moved by pity and admiration, I got to my knees so I was on level with that special and strange part of the man I loved.

"What is it?" I asked and saw it stand up even taller.

Jack was gazing down at me, my face so close to whatever it was, and he suddenly seemed kind of dazed and breathless, as if seeing me there close to it was making him excited; just like I was starting to feel knowing I was making him feel that way.

"It's...it's a penis," he whispered.

"It's beautiful!" I said and reached out my hand to touch Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s wonderful penis.

Jack gasped as my fingers made contact with its suprisingly soft surface. Liking how he was reacting to my touch, I decided to touch it some more! I grasped it in my hands and started to run my clenching palm up and down its shaft while I rubbed its tip, tracing the slit at the top. "What does it _do_?" I asked.

"Wh-what?" he asked in a moan, his eyes half closed.

"What is a penis for?" I inquired again.

"It's for making _ba_ -babies," he said. "I-I put it into you, Erin, and, if the time is right, it helps to make a baby."

I watched in delighted fascination as some liquid started to appear at the head of Jack's penis. "A baby!" I repeated.

"Y-yes," he moaned again as I pumped him harder trying to make more of the funny liquid come out. "B-but now is not the time when we're about to be eaten by trolls!"

Oh eating was a good idea, I thought! I was so hungry and there was Jack shooting all of this lovely liquid out from his body. Remembering Justice Grimm asking if I had placed Jack's candlestick in my mouth, I suddenly had a great idea. "How about I eat you first!" I announced and brought my head closer to the penis.

"Erin!" Jack shouted but my lips were wrapped around his large, leaking snake before he could stop me. And he didn't seem to really mind all that much as I started to suck on him, tasting that odd liquid which was hard to describe. It was bitter and sweet and salty. My tongue licked it up and around the penis, causing more to spill out. One of my hands free now, I used it to play with Jack's balls which made Jack very happy! He started to dance a little. Well, he moved his hips back and forth anyway, making his penis slide in and out of my mouth while my hands continued to pump and fondle him. The man's own hands went to my head and he started to ruffle my hair while he said my name over and over again. Suddenly his penis started to do its own dance inside of my mouth and more stuff started to shoot out of it! It hit the back of my throat and slid all the way down it! I kept my mouth right where it was, swallowing Jack-be-Nimble Jr.'s wonderful liquid because I was still so hungry!

Taking my mouth away finally, I watched as the angry snake started not to stand up anymore but looked kind of _spent_.

"Oh Jack!" I cried weeping. "I hurt you! I'm so sorry!"

"No you didn't!" he said, tilting my head upwards so I could see his face smiling down all full of contentment at me. "You made me feel so good!"

"I did?"

Jack nodded enthusiastically.

"What was that stuff that came out?" I asked. "Did your penis sneeze, Jack?"

He stifled a laugh and got on his knees to hug me.

"That was my seed, Erin. You swallowed my seed."

"Seed?" I said, feeling stupid again. "Like the type the Farmer in the Dell plants?"

Jack backed away laughing again. "Kind of. Only this makes babies not vegetables. Inside of you, you carry the other half needed for us to have one."

"It's in my tummy!" I said ecstatically. "That's why the baby grows in the stomach! Because I ate it!"

Jack started to shake his head and then kissed my cheek. "No. Actually you can't make a baby that way. I have to put my penis into you a different way. And the baby grows in your womb not your stomach."

My mind suddenly experienced that sensation when things became crystal clear and made sense. I thought of the place between my legs where the crab apple was going crazy again and where some kind of delicious pressure was building near that one place Jack had torn. "My hiding place!" I cried. "That place you hid your candlesick that one day out in the field! Only it was your penis not a candlestick!"

Jack swallowed and blushed. "It's not your secret hiding place, Erin; it's called a vagina."

"Oh do it again!" I begged, clasping my hands together and trying to get on all fours.

"I...I can't Erin," he confessed, stopping me and grabbing my shoulders. "A girl can orgasm quickly afterwards but a guy has to wait."

"Is that what you call that?" I asked. "When your body goes all twitchy?"

Jack-be-Nimble nodded. "When I do it, I'm sending out my seed, or sperm. But when your body does it, your body is calling my seed out, pulling it through my penis."

"Funny how it all works perfectly," I stated in awe. "Like it's all designed that way."

"Yes," he said, touching my face lovingly and wiping some of his seed from off of my chin where it was dribbling off and from the corner where it had pooled, as well. "Too bad we won't get to do it again; not with all of the trolls around."

It was peculiar though. When Jack and I looked, the woods surrounding us were back to being just a regular old Forest of the Night.

"I guess, they thought I was eating you and there would be nothing left for them," I said thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Jack said. "Now we should go to sleep while we can."

He lay down and held his arms out for me to go into, which I swiftly did. He felt so warm next to me and inside of me. I felt so safe in his arms that I quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Being the Forest of the Night, I had no idea what time it was when I awoke. All I knew was that Jack was awake before I was and staring at the woods ahead of us, which were once more moving, the trolls having returned once more. Having slept, I felt refreshed and somehow wiser after Jack teaching me a little more about the ways of adults; I wondered if the trolls _hadn't_ thought that I had been eating Jack-be-Nimble Jr. at all but by seeing us making love they had been frightened away; I felt as if our love and Jack's teaching me out of my former ignorance had the power to keep the monsters at bay.

"Make love to me now Jack," I whispered into his ear in the huskiest voice I could manage.

"I...I can't," he told me. "I'm too scared to be aroused."

"What's that?" I asked, in sympathetic curiosity.

"Arousal is when my penis becomes all hard and erect," Jack stated. "I can only have sex when it gets like that. If it doesn't, I'm impotent, Erin. It's what really happened when my candlestick was broken and I couldn't have sex anymore with Mary."

Remembering how I had helped fix Jack-be-Nimble Jr. before, I got to my feet and untied the string of my cloak, letting it fall to the dirty Forest floor. I shook my hair about and this seemed to get Jack's attention off of the trolls. He looked at my long brown-auburn waves and seemed appreciative of them. But not as much as when I dropped my dress onto the ground to join my cloak and stood before him completely naked and showing off my other patch of brown-auburn curls.

"How about a game of 'I Could Eat You Up' to raise your spirits Jack-be-Nimble Jr.?" I suggested and felt my crab apple resurging to life at the sight of Jack eyeing my full breasts hungrily.

"Erin, I'm not sure...I."

I brought my hand to the spot between my legs and found my apple. Jack's eyes widened as I started to rub it. "When you were locked up Jack, I had these feelings...like you had awakened something in me. I started lying in my bed and playing all by myself because you weren't there to play with me."

"That's your clitoris," Jack stated in a daze, watching me play with it. "You were masturbating."

"Mom came in cuz she heard me once. It feels good but not as good as when you did it."

"No?" Jack asked proudly.

"No," I said. "And I never stuck anything in my hiding pla...in my vagina."

I took my hands out and they were thickly covered in that translucent liquid. "What's this?" I asked and held my fingertips out towards him.  
"That's your body's way of making sure that my penis can slide into your vagina without hurting you too much," he said, his voice hoarse as he removed his jacket and shirt.

"Oh," I said and brought the lubricant to the buttons on my breasts, coating them with it and then pulling on them too. "That's why I get so wet," I said. "That's why you _make_ me so wet, Jack...so wet," I moaned in remembrance of him making love to me in the field and everything feeling so incredibly sloppy down there. "I have to be to take that big penis of yours between my legs."

One minute, Jack was sitting on the earth and the next he was up and throwing me to the ground along with him, his mouth wrapped around one of my buttons, licking the fluid off of it while his hand dipped into my fold to play with my clit and the other pulled on my other button. The trolls went crazy in the darkness, upset when faced with the man's desire for me.

"Why...why does that feel so _good_?" I cried, loving the way he was sucking on my breast and rubbing that nub of flesh below.

Jack started to place small kisses all about my huge breast so he could speak while his hands intently kept to their purpose. "Your clit is sensitive...nerves...it helps you become aroused and ready. Your buttons are called nipples and they work like that too. My touch here goes straight all the way down there to make you aroused also. You seem to be extremely sensitve on your breasts, Erin; I can feel your cream, like a flood between your legs, when I suck on you here."

His mouth found my other breast and started to suck on the nipple as he simultaneously licked on it, making me call out loudly as I orgasmed, my body convulsing wildly under him.

Panting after I had stopped spasming and screaming, Jack continued to kiss my chest. "They fill with milk when you're pregnant to feed the baby," he said, brushing his lips tenderly against my soft large mounds and nipples.

"That's wonderful too," I sighed in ecstasy.

I felt Jack's hard penis against my thigh but I guess he wanted to taste me now too, because his head began to kiss me from the space between my breasts down to my tummy then to my hairy hill until he pushed his head between my legs and rammed his tongue as far up my vagina as he could. I was getting aroused again, flailing my legs around as he moved his mouth to my swelling clitoris and began to suck on it like it was just another nipple.

"Oh Jack...oh Jack!" I murmured losing myself to another bout of physical bliss.

It didn't take long for him to make me have another orgasm which was violent, my vagina trying to clench on something that wasn't there. Jack-be-Nimble Jr. knelt before me and I saw his penis all big and lovely and standing up again.

"I...I want you pushing that lovely penis so far up my vagina it goes right up to where the baby will be," I said, reaching for it greedily as I lay on my back. Thinking I needed to be on my hands and knees, I went to move but, Jack placed his big hand on my furry mound and kept me in place.

"Face to face this time, Erin," he said, giving his penis a few tugs as he eyed the space between my widely spread legs with a fierce need.

"We can do that?" I asked, squirming in pleasure.

"Yeah," Jack said. "There are so many ways and I wanna do them all with you, only you."

I gasped in delight as Jack placed his body over mine, poising his weeping, fleshy penis at my hole. He started to feast on my breasts again as he entered me.

"Oh it's a penis not a candlestick!" I cried. "And it's going into my vagina!" I squealed in pleasure.

"Yes," Jack grunted. "And there are many different names for what you have...vagina, cunt, pussy...and what I have too...penis, cock, dick...so many and I want to hear you say every single one because on your lips they will all sound perfect and dirty and sweet."

To empathize this he kissed those same lips as he continued pushing his cock into me. And, oh, I could feel it reaching another special place now, that place where a baby could come from: the womb!

"What seed do I have?" I asked.

"Wh-what?" Jack asked, grunting and thrusting.

"Yours is sperm...what half of a baby do I have?"

"You have...an egg," he said before sucking on my nipple.

"Ahhhhhh! Ohhhhh!" I screamed. "Like Mother Goose?"

"Kind of but not exactly," he said, his words tickling the skin on my breast.

"Are there any other names for this?" I asked, feeling Jack's dick all slippery and moving inside of my wet cunt.

"Sex," Jack moaned, low and deep. "Fucking, intercourse..."

"I like making love best," I commented breathlessly.

"With you," Jack-be-Nimble Jr. said, stopping to look into my eyes and to stroke my sweat covered forehead. "That's what it will always be."

I smiled and we shared a sweet kiss.

My feet went to Jack's bottom then and I began to feel it with my toes, lowering them occassionally to stroke the back of his thighs as well. Jack went crazy and I did too from the new found force of his assured movement and adoration of his lips all over my sensitive chest. With all of the pleasure we were making between us all of what my Jack-be-Nimble Jr. had taught me about what we were doing seemed to leave my head. All I could do was experience it and think about how I was making love to Jack and obviously making him feel as good as he was making me feel. There were kisses and touches and cries and finally, at last, another passionate arrival to the act's ending as my part lovingly clenched Jack's one, which fit it so perfectly. I loved the feeling of him filling me with his seed. It made me feel like he had given me a beautiful gift, one that could create life if everything fell into place.

Trying to catch our breath, Jack and I looked at each other and shared another kiss. As we did, we heard the sound of the trolls scurrying off back into the Forest of the Night. We realized that the trees had opened up around us during our display of love; Sunshine was touching our naked, sweaty bodies and making our skin almost appear as if it was glowing. We lay in each other's arms for a bit longer before we rose to our feet and put our discarded clothing back on and stepped forward to see fully for the first time what lay on the other side of the Forest of the Night.

It looked very similar to Toyland. Only there were no buildings or anything like that, just hills, valleys, fields and a lake. There were no other people either, be it human, teddy bear, goose or troll. There was only Jack and myself. Turning to look at him, I could tell that my lover was thinking just as I was: this land was whatever we made of it. There were no laws that others cruelly enforced. There were only the ones that God had written on our hearts: to be fair and juste and above all else to love each other and always treat one another with respect, kindness and understanding.

We ran hand and hand together fully out of the shadow of the Forest of the Night until we sat on the green grass, which was sprinkled with the same wildflowers I loved to pick. Only now I could do it with a dress the proper length for a woman my age. Jack looked sad again after I mentioned this but when I reminded him I'd wear a short dress so he could gaze at my big, bare bottom whenever he liked, just as long as he asked nicely, he told me that wasn't why he was sad but confessed his true worry to me. "You being grown up now...I'll miss my little Erin and the games we used to play. I liked being a child again whenever I was with you."

"We can still do that," I said plucking a buttercup and playfully brushing the end of his nose with it. "See," I said with a giggle as I held it under his chin. "Your chin is yellow; you like butter."

"We...we really can?" Jack asked.

I nodded. "Life isn't being all grown up or being all childlike. It's being a little of both and knowing when to be one or the other."

Jack-be-Nimble smiled at me and his hand found my breast again and squeezed it, his finger feeling the exposed skin on it. "So I can do this and still go and try to catch frogs in a pond?"

"Yes," I smiled and moved closer to him and his touch. "We will lie on our backs in the tall grass and see animals in clouds and we will hunt, fish or grow our next meal. We will laugh and tell jokes but also cry when life makes us the butt of them every now and then. And I'll love you and you'll love me in both the innocent ways of our youth and in the adult way we just used to escape the dark forest of our ignorance. And when we need to, we'll also be there to tell each other that everything will be all right," I said, holding his head in my hands and caressing his cheek with my thumb. "Even if that is the biggest fairy tale of them all."

Although Jack looked completely reassured by my words, my boyish lover had one important question for me. "What is a fairy tale?"

I looked away in contemplation for a moment, seeing in my mind a flash of a boy very much like Jack reading out of a book to a girl very much like myself while they sat together in a strange room on a strange chair.

"I...I don't know...But I think it has something to do with saving the woman you love with a kiss."

"I can do that!" he joyfully proclaimed. Jack-be-Nimble Jr. smiled and leaned forward to kiss me. It was a sweet and slow kiss but one with passion and lust at its corners, a kiss which spoke of the life we would share together. I felt as if I was falling into Jack's mouth and into a warm and comforting darkness.

* * *

I opened my eyes to find myself back in the department store. I was sitting on the ground, propped up against a shelf, a legion of Cabbage Patch Kids surrounding me, while Jack Fenton kissed me passionately. The kiss was nice; wonderful even. But I soon realized it wasn't _only_ a kiss: Jack Fenton's hand was holding my breast, my shirt buttons undone for some reason; his index finger was touching my exposed skin while his thumb played with my nipple through the fabric of my store uniform and my bra.

When I returned the kiss, Jack eagerly intensified it until he suddenly backed away in embarrassment realizing he was fondling my breast. "I'm sorry, Erin," he said pulling his hand back. "When I couldn't make you come to, I loosened your shirt to help you breath better. When that didn't work, I guess, I went a little crazy. I remembered all of those fairy tales I used to read to you...how princes always managed to wake up the girl with a kiss...then I got a little carried away."

His face was turning the shade of a red stripe found in a candy cane and I reached out and touched his cheek to help calm him down. "I wanted you to," I confessed.

"But you were unconscious," he argued.

"Yes," I grimaced. "But if I'd been awake. I would have let you. I've dreamt of you doing that to me ever since I hit puberty."

"Really?" he asked in shock.

I nodded. "Like I said, I'm not a little girl anymore, Jack."

Jack looked down at my bra, which looked like two bald men were hiding inside of it and then looked shyly back into my eyes. "No...I don't think I wanted to see that before because then it meant you'd be with other guys," he suprised me by saying. "I couldn't stand that because I always kind of hoped when you grew up, you and me would...but I was so much older. I didn't want to look like or be some kind of perv."

"You think that matters to a little girl who'd already chosen her Prince Charming when he would come over and read her nursery rhymes?" I asked and rested my forehead against his.

"Erin," he whispered and started to kiss me again.

We were still kissing when Mary arrived on the scene of the Cabbage Patch massacre.

"Why you two dirty _cheaters_!" she cried. "Going at it in the children's aisle! You two oughtta be ashamed of yourselves! I'm gonna have Barney fire both your sorry asses!"

And with that decree, the woman stormed off.

"Good," Jack said, helping me to my feet. "I was tired of this crap anyway."

Looking at the fallen Cabbage Patch Kids lying all around us, though, they inspired the man to make one request. "So Erin...ever think about wearing a dress that short?" he asked pointing at a doll in a dress which looked eeriely familiar. "You'd look mighty fine with your cute, big bottom hanging out."

"If you ask nicely," I instructed him and kissed him naughtily.

Jack and I started to laugh as we ran out of the department store, holding hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Story completed and I think it turned out well! Or, at least, as well as I had hoped it would. It was dirty but hopefully funny in places and touching too. A lot of touching going on actually. But I hope it managed to touch the heart sometimes too! 
> 
> What do you think, Keanu? Yeah, I know you'll never read it but, if by some miracle you happen to, did it turn out well enough in the end? Can you forgive me for it? I hope you can. :D <3


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